Favorite Holiday

Christmas is my favorite holiday because it is a very fun day. Every year, my immediate family wakes up and opens presents. We all watch each other open our presents. Then, my dad cooks breakfast and we all eat together. After that, we go around the corner to my grandparents house with everyone from my mom's side of the family and exchange presents there too. Christmas is always fun not because of the presents, but because our family is so close to each other and we spend the day together. My grandma cooks dinner which is always delicious and my aunt makes her famous biscotti cookies on Christmas that everyone loves. We also have a pretty long break away from school which is good too. Also, we take pictures throughout the day and at the end, my sister Laura and I burn everyone a DVD, putting all the pictures to Christmas music for everyone to remember each year.

First Quarter Grades

My grades for the first quarter were good. My GPA probably would have been better without the pluses and minuses though. I think that I will have a very Happy Thanksgiving because I got good grades for the first quarter and Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays.

LinkedIn

LinkedIn is an interconnected network of experienced professionals from around the world. It can be used to find, be introduced to, and collaborate with qualified professionals that you need to work with to accomplish your goals. When you join LinkedIn, you can create a profile page that summarizes your professional expertise and accomplishments. You can also connect with other's by inviting contacts to join LinkedIn and connect with you. This network can link you to a vast number of professionals and can be great for your work. Some of the good things about LinkedIn are that you can manage the information about yourself and make it available for others to view, you can find and be introduced to potential clients, service providers, and subject experts, and you can create and collaborate on projects, gather data, share files, and solve problems. In addition, people can gain new insights from their discussions with like minded professionals in private group settings. Users can also discover inside connections that can help them land jobs and close deals. Another good thing about LinkedIn is that you can post and distribute job listings to find the best talent for your company. On the other hand, there are some negative things about LinkedIn too. There are many "head hunters" or people that want to sell you something on this network, so users may receive many requests from them. Another negative is that you can't block certain individuals from seeing your profile page; you can only block your page as a whole so people can't view it, which LinkedIn users feel is pointless because then you can't collaborate with other professionals. Although the network is growing rapidly, there are some users who use abusive behavior and violate the "Terms of Service". For example, some people create an account with a fake name and use falsifying information on their profile page. Not only that, but people sometimes use other people's accounts and massively invite people that they don't know. Lastly, people can use the data in and unauthorized way. However, LinkedIn takes these violations very seriously and don't tolerate this abusive behavior. They contact users with a warning and how a violation of it will result in restriction or termination of their account. In addition, LinkedIn created an email address for people to report inappropriate behavior.

http://press.linkedin.com/

Family Traditions

My family has many annual traditions. For Thanksgiving, my dad's side of the family and my grandparents, aunt, uncle, and cousins from my mom's side of the family come over my house. On Christmas Eve, my family and I go to my cousin's house with the rest of my dad's side of the family. On Christmas day, my immediate family opens presents in the morning at our house and eat breakfast together. Then, we get ready to go to my grandparent's house around the corner with my mom's side of the family. On New Years Eve, we go back to my grandparent's house on my mom's side of the family. We all eat dinner together and watch the ball drop as a family. Then everyone has champagne and celebrates the new year and my older sister, my cousin, and my grandma's birthday because they all have the same birthday, December 30th. On Memorial Day weekend, my family and I drive upstate and go to my cousin's house with my dad's side of the family. We don't really see my dad's side of the family that much, only 2-3 times a year. But we are really close with my mom's side of the family and see each other so much since we all live so close to each other. We always get together for birthday's, or just to hang out for fun. These traditions are really fun and important to my family.

Social Networking

Social networking systems are websites that are used to help people connect with one another. Myspace was originally used for music, bands, businesses, and blogs. However, now Myspace is used by teens as a social networking system similar to Facebook, and that is one that connects people with eachother. On the other hand, Facebook was originally designed as a social networking website for college students to connect with their friends at other colleges and keep in touch. Yet, like Myspace, Facebook is now used by teenagers, high school students, and some adults as well. On these websites, you are allowed to upload videos and pictures. Not only that, but on Facebook, you can chose who you want to be friends with. You have to send the person a friend request and that person has to confirm it so that you can view each other's profile pages. The positive things about these social networking systems is that people can talk in chats and keep in touch with friends and family members. In addition, you can take quizzes and play games on these websites. The negative things about Myspace and Facebook is that sometimes people find a way to hack onto your personal page and view your pictures and videos without you knowing. Also, if you are applying for a job or a college, the employer can pay a fee to hack onto your page so they can see if you have any inappropriate pictures or videos. If they see that there are inappropriate pictures and videos, there is a very slim chance that you will be hired or accepted. People really have to be careful about what they post and publish on their pages because employers will judge you and assume the type of person you are by looking at what you publish. Social networking systems are great websites to use for entertainment and social aspects, however, they need to be used the right way. As long as people are using Facebook and Myspace simply for keeping touch with their friends and family, they have nothing to worry about when it comes time to apply for college or a job.





http://www.facebook.com

http://www.myspace.com

Grades

For the first quarter, I think that I got a B in economics, A- in PIG, A+ in BCA, B in Humanity and Empathy in the 21st Century, an A+ in gym, and an A in math.

Google Docs

Google Docs is a free service where people can create spreadsheets and presentations online. Users can easily do all the basics, such as making bulleted lists, sorting by columns, adding tables, images, comments, formulas, changing fonts, and more. In addition, users can upload their existing files because Google Docs accepts most popular file formats. You can also choose who can access your documents as well. All you have to do is enter the email addresses of the people that you want to share the document with and send them an invitation. Anyone that you have invited can either edit or view your document, spreadsheet, or presentation as soon as they sign in. Not only that, but numerous people can view and make changes at the same time because there is an on-screen chat window that shows you exactly who changed what and when they changed it. Google Docs allows users to access their documents from any computer that has internet connection and a standard browser. Users can feel secure about their work because Google Docs has online storage and auto-save, so you don’t have to worry if there is a power outage or a local hard drive failure. Furthermore, users have the ability to drag and drop documents into as many folders as they would like. This is good for organization and makes it easy to find your documents. Google Docs is really good for companies, businesses, and even students to use. However, although it has spell check, it does not have the ability to check the actual grammar or the language of the document. Either way, it could still be used for students to take notes and can be really helpful for group work assignments. There are also “gadgets” that can be used to create graphs, charts, maps, and other visual presentations of information. Not only that, but it is also good for transporting your work from one computer to another if you don’t have a USB or flash drive. Google Docs is not a social networking service, so it isn’t good for social, entertainment, news, or recreation. Another bad thing about it is that if internet access is not available, you cannot access your work. Like several existing communication technology, Google Docs can be abused as well. Since Google has a lot of credibility and because spam filters do not regard Google links as spam, spammers that want to gain access of emails use Google Docs to get past filters and into the email boxes of millions of people.



http://www.google.com/google-d-s/tour1.html

http://www.notebookreview.com/

Best Vacation

My best vacation ever was during the summer of 2008. My family and my cousins' family went to Hilton Head Island in South Carolina. My cousins' go to Hilton Head every year, and my family hasn't been on a vacation since I was four years old, so since we are all really close, we thought it would be fun to go on vacation together. The weather was gorgeous and we had our own villas to stay in, which was really big and looked like a house. It was definitely the best vacation ever because we had so much fun and shared so many memories that I will never forget. Being around my family and going to the beach are two things that I really enjoy. Hopefully we will go on vacation together again.

Twitter

Twitter is a social networking and micro-blogging service that enables users to post their latest updates. The purpose of it is for friends, family, and co-workers to communicate and stay connected. It was founded in March of 2006 by Jack Dorsey, Biz Stone, and Evan Williams and started by Obvious Corp. Users are able to update their posts through SMS text messaging, instant messaging, email, and Twitter’s website. Answers must be under 140 characters in length. In addition, each user has their own profile page that displays their most recent updates. You can become friends with other people- similar to Facebook- or plainly be a follower. Not only can you read other people’s posts and profile page, but you can also receive other people’s updates through text messages, RSS or third party applications. Although users may have to pay text messaging charges, Twitter itself is a free networking service. In all countries around the world, people can follow the sources most important to them and access information from breaking world news to updates from friends. These updates are also known as tweets.
Because it gives the public the ability to speak directly to people and institutions, Twitter has become an important marketing tool for celebrities, businesses, and politicians. In fact, celebrities turn to outside writers, known as ghost Twitterers, to keep fans updated on the latest news, frequently in the celebrity’s own voice. This website could be good for social networking, entertainment, and news. However, many people complain that Twitter is not good for news. Some people feel that it is boring and a waste of time. It could also be potentially dangerous to businesses and the marketplace.
Like several existing communication technology, Twitter can be abused as well. There are many people that recklessly use this micro-blogging application with no purpose or reason. For example, someone ran an online hate campaign against another person by setting up a false Twitter account and made tweets to it pointing to websites that supported his hate campaign. Additionally, marketers use Twitter to attract victims to their scams. As you can see there are both positives and negatives about using Twitter.



http://www.crunchbase.com/company/twitter
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/business/companies/twitter/index.html

Favorite Things

Favorite sports teams - New York Yankees (I am a die-heart Yankees fan and watch every single game!), New York Knicks, New York Giants, New York Rangers
Favorite sport - basketball
Favorite activities - hanging out with my family and friends, playing basketball, and going to the beach
Favorite foods - pizza, chicken parmesian, mac and cheese, and chicken fingers
Favorite restaurant - Famous Daves
Favorite music - r&b, hiphop, some rap, and pop
Favorite musicians - Chris Brown, Usher, Jay- Z, T-Pain, Ne-Yo

BCA

Hey I'm Christina and welcome to my BCA blog.